In electric equipment such as audio equipment, video equipment, a computer and peripheral equipment thereof, functional equipment such as a motor, an actuator or an input/output device is connected to a main circuit board, on which a circuit having a function as a control circuit is mounted. There has been conventionally known a structure for connecting a thin circuit board having flexibility to a connector as a structure for connecting the functional equipment connected onto the main circuit board to a power source. Here, the connector is formed into a shape of a casing, which contains therein a plurality of terminals electrically connected and fixed to the main circuit board by soldering and whose one surface has an inserting port thereat. Moreover, a flexible printed circuit board (hereinafter abbreviated as “an FPC”) and a flexible flat cable (hereinafter abbreviated as “an FFC”) have been well known as the thin circuit board for use in connection to the connector.
In recent years, the connector, the FPC and the FFC also have become thinner in association with the miniaturization of the electric equipment. In the meantime, since the connector has been merely mounted on the main circuit board by soldering the terminal, a slight gap has been formed between the connector and the main circuit board.
FIG. 4 is a view schematically showing a structure for inserting an FPC into a connector in the prior art.
An FPC 300 is thin and has flexibility. Therefore, a worker intends to insert the FPC 300 into a connector 200 while holding the vicinity of a tip of the FPC 300 during an inserting work of the FPC 300 into the connector 200 by the worker. However, the worker cannot hold a connector joint 310 of the FPC 300, which is a portion to be inserted into the connector 200. Consequently, the tip of the connector joint 310 of the FPC 300 is flexed, and cannot be properly positioned. As a result, the worker cannot accurately insert the FPC 300 into a connector inserting port 210. As countermeasures against this, a guide surface 220 is formed at the connector inserting port 210, such that the FPC 300 can be favorably inserted into the connector inserting port 210 at a substantially proper position. Nevertheless, the FPC 300 may be flexed downward of the guide surface 220, and as a result, may be erroneously inserted into a gap 500. In this case, the worker must do the inserting work of the FPC 300 again, thereby raising a problem of degradation of productivity by the worker. In addition, in the case where the FPC 300 is erroneously inserted into the gap 500, the FPC 300 has been caught in the connector 200 when the FPC 300 is inserted into and drawn back from the gap 500, whereby the FPC is scratched. As a result, the FPC 300 becomes a defective product, thereby raising a problem of an impossibility of reuse of the FPC 300.
As countermeasures against the above-described erroneous insertion, there has been a method for preventing any erroneous insertion by constituting a connector of a plurality of members and forming a cutout at an FPC in the prior art. In this case, since a special part for preventing any erroneous insertion of the FPC must be mounted on the connector, the number of parts has been increased. To make matters worse, the shape of the connector must be varied, and therefore, a versatile connector cannot be used. This leads an increase in unit cost of the connector. Additionally, since the FPC corresponding to the connector also must be made into special shape in a similar manner, a versatile FPC cannot be used. This leads to an increase in unit cost of the FPC.